Meneses wins second batter of the week honor

Joey Meneses bats against Rochester on May 21, 2018. Meneses was honored with his second International League Player of the Week honor. (Photo by Cheryl Pursell)

For the second time in three weeks, IronPigs’ infielder Joey Meneses has been named International League Batter of the Week. He becomes just the second Lehigh Valley player to earn this honor twice in the same season, joining Andy Tracy from the IronPigs inaugural season of 2008. In fact, Meneses and Tracy are the only two players to receive this honor multiple times in an IronPigs career.

Meneses hit safely in all six games played from May 14-20, batting an IL-best .478 (11-for-23) while also leading the league in home runs (4), runs scored (7), extra-base hits (7), total bases (27), slugging percentage (1.174) and OPS (1.712). In addition, the native of Culiacan, Mexico, ranked tied for first in hits (11), tied for second in RBI (7) and third in on-base percentage (.538) during the period.

From May 16-19, Meneses homered in four-consecutive games – tying the franchise record set by Cameron Rupp in 2014 (April 3-8). His solo round-tripper in Lehigh Valley’s 2-1 victory at Syracuse on May 18 broke a 1-1 tie with two outs in the top of the ninth inning.

In a span of five-straight at-bats from May 18-19, the former Atlanta Braves prospect recorded a single, a game-winning home run, an RBI-triple, a double and and a two-run homer.

Meneses initially received IL Batter of the Week honors for the week of April 30 through May 6, when he posted an IL-best .520 average (13-for-25) with two home runs, eight RBI and three walks while also leading the league in extra-base hits (6), total bases (24), slugging percentage (.960) and OPS (1.531).
Signed by the Phillies as a minor league free agent in January, Meneses currently leads the IL in batting average (.368), slugging percentage (.658) and OPS (1.071) while ranking third in total bases (77), tied for third in home runs (7), RBI (20) and extra-base hits (19) and fourth in on-base percentage (.413).He had never played at the Triple-A level prior to starting 2018 with Lehigh Valley.